Bethpage-Tribune_1976-07-29

              BETHB»GE
G £ PUS LIB
ELL AV
GE NY 1 1 7 14
OLDBETHIW3E
also serving ISLAND TREES
PLAINVIEW PLAfNEDGE SEAFORD
VOL. 10 NO. 36 Thursday, July 29, 1976 10 cents per copy
I.T. Board Votes Removal
Of Controversial Books
By Larry D'Angela
Before a front row audience of news reporters, photographers
and cameramen, Island Trees board president Richard Ahrens
announced the board's decision on the 11 "controversial books"
priorly removed from the school library shelves. And before the
night was over, only two of the books were approved to re-occupy
their original spaces.
The exact vote was as follows:
Slaughterhouse Five: 4-4 (committee vote), the board voted 7-0
for the book's removal.
Naked Ape: 2 for-6 against (committee vote), the board voted 7-0
for the book's removal.
Down These Mean Streets: 3 for -5 against (committee vote), the
board voted 7-0 for the book's removal.
Soul On Ice: 4-4 (committee vote), the board voted 7-0 for the
book's removal.
Best Short Stories by Negro Writers: 5 for, 2 against, 1 undecided
(committee vote), the boa'rd voted for the book's removal
Go Ask Alice: The board voted 6-1 on the book's removal but'
trustee Louis Nessim felt the book should be approved on a
restricted basis.
Laughing Boy: 8 for, 0 against (committee vote), the board
unanimously approved that the book be restored to the shelves.
Black Boy: 8 for, 0 against (committee vote), the board approved
the book be restored, but on a restricted basis (later explained by
Ahrens to mean "with parental permission"). Trustee Richard
Melchers felt Black Boy should go back on the shelves with no
restrictions.
A Hero Ain't Nothing But A Sandwich: 4-4 (committee vote), the
board voted 5-2 for its removal. Nessim and board veep Frank
Martin felt the book should he restored on a restricted basis. w.
The Fixer: 5 for, 3 against (committee vote), the board voted
unanimously for its removal.
A Reader for Writers: no action taken by the committee, the
board voted unanimously for its removal.
Hearing Blames City
For L.I. Sludge Problem
Berle To Review Landfill
LANDFILL LOBBYISTS gathered signatures on petitions calling for
suspension of excavation at the landfill and an immediate public
hearing to reassess alternatives. Greater Plainview Civic
Association president Paul Eisenstein (left) and Rose Marie Lopez
collected signatures at the Hicksville LIRR station last week.
State Environmental Con­servation
Commissioner Peter
Berle announced last week that
he would review the plans for the
entire Plainview landfill project,
although he would not halt ex-
. cavation at the site at this time.
This announcement was made
following a meeting held Wed­nesday,
July 21 in Albany bet­ween
Commissioner Berle,
Assemblyman Lewis Yevoli (D-Old
Bethpage) and Ed Baron,
president of the Tuxedo Hills
Civic Association.
Assemblyman Yevoli and Mr.
Baron have been leaders in the
tight against the proposed Town
of Oyster Bay landfill project.
They have voiced fears that the
compacted garbage to be buried
(Continued on Page 12)
This past Saturday's
Congressional Hearing held at
Hempstead Town Hall produced
evidence confirming the con­tention
that most of the
"floatables," grease and garbage
despoiling our beaches come
from two sources, both located in
New York City.
"Floatable artifacts of sewage
are the immediate problem,"
Rep. Norman Lent (R-East
Rock.) claims. "These come
from raw sewage dumped into
New York harbor at the rate of
430 million gallons per day, and
from inadequate skimming
operations to remove floatables
at most of the city's sewage
treatment facilities, which
process an additional 1.1 billion
gallons of sewage daily."
Gerald Hansler, the Regional
Administrator of the Environ­mental
Protection Agency, was
closely questioned during his
testimony before the
Oceanography Subcommittee of
the House Merchant Marine and
Fisheries Committee. When
questioned by Rep. Lent, he
admitted that "even after ocean
dumping of sewage sludge is
halted in 1981, New York City's
raw sewage and Sloppy operation
of sewage treatment plants will
still pose a danger to Long Island
beaches."
At the hearing, Rep. Lent
presented N.Y. State Environ­mental
Conservation Com­missioner
Peter Berle copies of
his department's "Operation and
Maintenance" reports which
severely criticized the city for
sloppy substandard management
of its treatment plants. Berle
stated that the city received an
"adequate" amount of state
funds, over $16 million annually,
for maintenance of its plants. The
Commissioner could not account
for the haphazard operations, but
promised Lent he would in­vestigate
the deficiencies and file
his report with Lent and the
Oceanography Subcommittee.
In a related development,
besides banning sludge dumping
as of 1981, the federal EPA has
drawn up a set of regulations
designed to give it tighter control
over ocean dumping. According
to scientists lobbying for the legal
changes, these laws will give the
EPA the authority it needs to
study the interactions of
pollutants dumped at the sewage
sludge and chemical waste dump
sites. Municipalities using these
sites will be required to devise,
and pay for, additional testing to
consider the overall effect of
their dumping.
A second part of the regulations
will provide for more EPA
control over dumping of dredge
spoils at sea by the Army Corps
of Engineers. Under the new
regulations, which the corps has
**r
Congressman Norman F. Lent conferred with an assistant, Steven
Saunders (standing) about the reams of technical testimony taken
during Congressional hearings on beach pollution last Saturday, at
Hempstead Town Hall. Lent called for the hearing when 70 miles of
ocean beaches were soiled by sewage artifacts in June.
agreed to, the EPA will be able to
require the corps to test the
dredge spoils for pollutants and
to consider other methods of
disposal. Practically speaking,
according to Pete Anderson, head
of the regional Marine Protection
Program, "in the past, we just
had to take the corps' opinion on
the dredge spoil dumping per­mits;
now we'll have the data and
the power to contradict them, if
it's necessary."
On the judicial angle of sludge
dumping, the Town of Hempstead
has filed a suit in New York State
Supreme Court to prevent the
City from discharging untreated
sewage into New York Harbor. In
a visit to Buttermilk Channel in
the East River off Cadman Plaza
in Brooklyn, Hempstead
Supervisor Al D'Amato picked up
non-disinfected human waste and
other raw sewage which had been
swept up onto the banks of the
river. Wind and tides have
recently swept this Sewage onto
Long Island beaches. The Town
of Oyster Bay has joined Hem­pstead
in their court suit.
More information on ocean
dumping and our water en­vironment
becomes available
each day. Rep. John Breaux (D.-
La.), Chairman of the House
Oceanography Subcommittee,
said that more hearings will be
scheduled in Washington. He
joined Rep. Lent in pledging to
investigate ways to assure that
"floatables" skimmed off sewage
during treatment won't continue
to be dumped into the ocean with
inert sludge, only to wash ashore
on neighboring beaches.
By Shari Miller
Town Board Approves
More Landfill Studies
At the weekly Board meeting
held Tuesday, July 27, the Town
of Oyster Bay authorized its
consulting engineers to engage m
further studies before proceeding
to the next planning phase of the
Plainview Landfill project. These
further studies will concern
leachate treatment and dispu^al
options, collection systems,
construction techniques, and
liner materials. Supervisor
Burke said that "the Board
deemed it is necessayy that this
information be provided before it
can agree that the preliminary
concept proposed by the
engineers has the capability of
meeting the standards the Board
demands.
Before moving the resolution
for a vote, Councilman Hogan
expressed his concern over the
landfill project which has
generated "considerable public
debate. Recent reports by
engineers have raised serious
questions about leachate...It is
necessary that the Board and the
public be completely certain that
we will not pollute the ground­water.
" Mr. Hogan then cast his
vote approving the resolution
extending Preliminary Phase I
and providing for additional
studies.
Carole rishman, a concerned
Plainview resident who has been
(Continued on Psge 6)